Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is one of the nicest men you will ever meet in the MMA business. He’s 100% class and he is a true legend. Rarely do you ever hear anyone say a bad word about him and there’s a good reason for that. Nogueira has spent his entire professional career fighting the best fighters in the world and is the last guy you would ever accuse of being a wimp, a pussy, and a crybaby.

Which is clearly why Frank Mir seems to be angling for a re-match against him and is ready to play the heel here against the lovable Nogueira. What makes it interesting is that usually you don’t see winners in first-time fights basically cry out for a re-match against the loser.

I’m not so sure Frank Mir is the heel here. All I know is if I beat somebody and all they did is make excuses afterwards…. And did it in many interviews…. Even after their next fight…. I would be very vocal as well.

Mir has a right to be angry by this. Whether or not Nogueira is a nice guy, he needs to keep his mouth shut. Nice people don’t constantly put down somebody else’s accomplishments. And that’s exactly what he is doing.

I’m not a fan of Mir or Nogueira…. So this isn’t me playing favorites. I just can’t stand the typical “Brazilian MMA Excuse Machine” that seems to happen all the time. It’s been going on the last 10 years in the sport….. Whether it’s Belfort, Gracie, Nogueira, Arona, Filho, etc…. They all seem to let their excuses be known to the press (especially Tatame Magazine). Nogueira lost to Mir. He needs to except that. I would still put money on Nogueira in a rematch. Until they happens, he should keep his “I’m so sick” stuff to himself.

It’s not really fair to call Frank Mir the heel when everything he’s saying is the absolute truth. Nog didn’t use head movement against Randy, Randy is a small heavyweight, Randy did get off balance which allowed the sweep to mount, and fighters generally do come into fights less than 100%. At the end of the day, if Nog was in such bad shape against Mir that it would affect his performance as much as they’re trying to say it did, he should have backed out of the fight, end of story.

Mr. Roadblock, what difference does it make if he did? He has a legitimate gripe here. I think all of this is because Mir is not well liked. I remember when Tim Sylvia made an excuse for losing to Couture he got blasted for it.

Whether you like Mir or not, he is making sense here. He didn’t do anything different than Tim Sylvia when he knocked him Nog down several times. Fighters never really come into a fight hundred percent. Plain and simple it was not Nog’s night.

For the record, Mir didn’t really come into the fight in best shape agains Big Nog. He actually was trying to pull out of the fight because nagging back and knee injury but UFC brass talked him out of it

I take back my previous comment…. I think Mir could still be the favorite against Nogueira. Nogueira has always had a problem with bigger submission wrestlers, just like he did with Ricco Rodriguez. I think Mir just matches up perfectly against him. He hits hard enough to knock Nogueira down, and he can’t be caught in a submission. Nogueira and Couture showed a definitive lack of reflexes in that fight.

As for Mir/Vera & Mir/Nogueira…. They aren’t even the same thing. Mir wasn’t putting down Vera as much as he was just pumping himself up. Saying the real Frank Mir is back is a statement about how far he came when everybody (probably including himself) had written him off. Nobody thought he could make a comeback. When he did, it was a self esteem booster internally….

That’s completely different then what Nogueira is doing, which is singling out a specific fighter who he thinks he is better then.

And no offense to the Brazilian MMA fighters, but they lost the benefit of the doubt a long time ago….

What’s wrong with Nogueira saying that he wasn’t at his usual fitness for the Mir fight because he had a staph infection? That’s not disrespecting Mir. That’s just stating the truth since he did have a staph infection.

Mir isn’t playing heel, he’s saying the truth. Nog was the one crying about having staph and a knee injury after getting destroyed by Mir at UFC 92. A man with real class would never try and downplay his opponent like he did. The worst thing is that many site have taken the excuses and tried to pass them off as facts, when Nog has no one to blame but himself if he was stupid enough to fight injured. Mir whether people like him or hate him tell the truth, Nog and his fans sound pathetic the way they try to excuse Mir’s destruction of him and it needs to stop.

lol, really? I think its funny how nobody really holds the Pe de Pano or Brandon Vera loss against Mir at this point. I also think its funny how people bought into the Zuffa hype machine of FRANK MIR, TOP HEAVYWEIGHT. Pe de Pano, when he was still very green, destroyed Frank Mir.

Everybody gives him a pass because he was going through rough times and wasn’t properly prepared for that fight. If anything, it is ridiculous that a guy like Mir is upset that another fighter is claiming the fight might go differently if he was in better shape. Mir had been making that same argument for how long?

I’m not delusional, Nog is getting old, but there is no way a healthier Nog would fight that same fight against Mir. Just like Mir rematched against Pe de Pano or Brandon Vera would be completely different fights. To not think so is to be extremely crass.

Hey Dave, you must have me confused with someone else I don’t excuse Mir’s losses to Pa De Pano or Vera. Healthy or not Mir decided to step in and fight and suffered the consequences for that action.

Nog decided to step and face Mir supposedly hurt got destroyed, then after the fact started claiming all of these injuries coming into the fight to discredit Mir that is bs.

To me it’s simple you lose, you accept defeat and comeback harder next time. The momment you start crying about injuiries I lose any respect I have for you.

Fanboys can try and justify losses to themselves all they want, but it’s up to the people talking about MMA to call people out of this stuff. Aside from a bs judges decision or a bs stoppage, if you step in and get beat the crap out you there are no excuses so shut the hell up.

I could agree with everything Mir said. Nog can make excuses for his past loss only after beating Lesnar (impossible), not 46 years old small grandpa.

I know as a fact that Mir doesn’t really want any of those Heavy Weight Wrestlers again for his opponent. He may be angling for a rematch with Nog because that’s the easiest opponent in the current ranking.

I am not taking any sides here, But to remind everybody – Nog pulled this same shit when he lost to Barnett back in the GP. So Yes he has cried about losing before, And Now he seems to be doing the exact same thing with mir.

I know they’re proud fighters, but you look like MORE of a man when you say “I wasn’t the better man this night”, not less.

Mir NEVER makes lame excuses…he says that he was disappointed in his performance or that he should have done better, but I’ve never heard/read him say “Well, I WOULD have won, but what about this tennis elbow?”

Zach, I agree entirely about Nog being a ‘nice guy’ and having watched him for as long as I can remember in Pride and now the UFC I have nothing but the uptmost respect for him.

HOWEVER and this is true of all fighters not just Nog, an excuse made after a fight is always going to aim to demean the actions and victory of your opponent.

He could have pulled out of the fight, but he didn’t he chose to fight, either thinking he could win, wanting the money or for other reasons not aired, if you enter the ring/octagon/cage you leave the excuses at the door, you haven’t been forced to fight.

Its not a classy move to belittle the performance of Mir by blaming it on an excuse, I hate nothing more than the BUT and IF [insert injury, training camp moan, personal problem etc].

As I said its not relevant to just NOG all the fighters do it, but I can sympathise why MIR would be annoyed, it was his highest profile win to date (post-accident) and put him right up there in the mix again.

Fighters, leave the excuses at the door and remember you could have pulled out.

I wasn’t referring to you specifically as much as the whole. I think your whole approach of anybody who disagrees with Mir is just a deluded fanboy is hilarious and crass. Sorry.

There is an article by Leland Rolling on the mainpage of BE right now asking the same questions; why are people supporting Mir in this after he ran Brandon Vera down after Vera beat him?

Fighters make and have legitimate excuses sometimes. I firmly agree with anybody who says that Mir had a good excuse for his losses; he had a possibly career-threatening injury, he was super depressed and abusing pills. I’m fine with that, just like I’m fine with Nog having some pretty bad injuries that prevented him from performing well.

You know how we solve this? Rematch, then it is done. I’ve never been a Frank Mir fan, I’ve always thought he was an overhyped product of UFC. Dude has two non-UFC fights, and was mainly a “discovery” by Joe Silva. He has three victories over impressive opponents in his entire career; Sylvia, a green Lesnar and an injured Nogueira.

Compare that with Nogueira’s career and its hard to really compare. If Mir takes Nog in a rematch, its cool, Mir turned his potential into a reality, otherwise he is just a product of hype and wasted talent.

“Word of the injury got out on the evening of 9/2, a few hours after he was scheduled to take a random drug test by the California State Athletic Commission. He didn’t get on the flight to California and when he no-showed, UFC informed the commission that Sherk was injured and was off the card.”

Dave you lost me when you started the typical anti-Mir talking points trying to discredit his career. Simply put Mir never made excuses for the Vera fight he said he was healthy and ready and got beat.

A rematch between Nog and Mir solves nothing if Mir wins more excuses will be made by the Nog fanatics and if he losses then it will just justify the excuses by said fanatics.

Simply put excuses don’t mean a damn thing, Nog fougth Mir and was destroyed it wasn’t close or controversial. People looking back and trying to make excuses and crying about it does nothing but make then and Nog look bad man up and take a loss like Maia did.

What I find funny about this whole situation is that if Nogueira had pulled out of the Mir fight due to his problems, he’d be called a p***y and be accused of ducking Frank, as is the case with any polarizing figure in MMA.

So he takes the fight, winds up on a loss due in part to his injury/condition and he’s called an idiot for taking the bout hurt. It’s a no-win.

I can’t seem to remember Nog every crying about the Mir loss or making excuses. He referenced it in a post-fight interview with regards to why he looked so much better this time out. Everything else was just speculation.

@ 45 Huddle, I think your sweeping generalisation of Brazilian MMA fighters is a tad ignorant (I don’t want to go as far as to use the ‘R’ word, but thats what it boils down to)…I’ve seen [INSERT 5 AMERICAN MMA FIGHTER’S NAMES] make excuses for their losses…are they part of some ‘American excuse machine’?